08.16.08

I’m BAAAAACK

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 11:55 pm by Meg

but don’t blink or you’ll miss me

We got home about 2 hours ago and I’ve spent most of that time catching up on emails (waay to many…and way too many foolish conversations) so I just deleted most of them.

Hey, if people were talking about it last Thursday or Friday, it’s old news now and not worth my time to wade through whatever the point was.  Did find out that I missed a quick visit with my sister P on Friday.  She and her husband were on their way back to Maryland from Sturgis (and yes, they were riding his bike, not hauling it on a trailer) and came through here.  oh well, we’ll (well, not Boy) see P next month.

And I’ve checked quickly at bloglines, but decided that I do not want to work my way through all that.

So, now I’ve got 3.5 days at home before we head out the door with taking Boy to Texas.  In that time I need to:

• make sure he has what he needs (or a list of what we need to purchase in Texas) for college
• spend all day Monday with Boy getting medical treatments - they want us there by 9 AM and we won’t be done until about 4 PM.  Then it is over to the State Fair grounds to pick up the leatherwork that I entered (didn’t do very well) and then we’ll hit the comicbook store before heading home (and remember that it’s over 90 mins. to get there)
• Have Girl start her Spanish class at the local high school on Tuesday morning (and Datter - a full day) and make sure they have the notebooks etc. ahead of time that they will need.
• Take Boy to the DMV to renew his permit - we never did fit in getting his license and it’s about to expire.
• Host a homeschool “Not back to School” swimming party at our house on Tuesday (Fuzzythoughts, you are welcome to come!!) afternoon.
• Pick up the dog from the kennel on Monday (actually Hubby is doing it) and drop her back off on Wednesday so Boy can have a last couple of days with her.  She’s his dog.
• oh, and get Girl’s schoolwork ready so she can start the following Monday after we come back.

I’m thinking that I’ll be just a little busy.

Anyway, we had a great trip.

Our room in Wisconsin Dells was upgraded into a sort-of suite and we all enjoyed the extra space.  From there over to Minneapolis and the Mall of America.

Boy and Girl both did some “back to school” shopping.  Boy was on his own (called me with a $45 shirt to ask if he should be spending that much on a single piece of clothing - but didn’t end up getting it.) And Girl went with Datter. It sounds as if Datter had fun dressing her. (and even found her some things that weren’t BLACK - amazing!)

The highlight of the afternoon was my friend A (who was stopping by the house to check on the cats, mail, and newspapers)calling to say that the orange cat (Ribbons) was missing.  We have a nice sized screened-in porch and the cats were closed up on it with their litterboxes, food, and water.  It has two screendoors leading out and two wooden doors leading elsewhere.

When she went on Thursday, only the black cat, Catmandu, was around, but she didn’t worry.  On Friday, she couldn’t see either of them, but when she called Catmandu came from the far end.  (The end with one of the screen doors and both of the wooden doors.)

When she couldn’t see a cat door cut into either one of the wooden doors, she called me.

Her message to me (and I paraphrase, but I’m close) was that Ribbons had gotten out and she couldn’t find her.  - now understand that Ribbons is my cuddling cat, but she is a scaredy cat about everything and will run if anything makes a sudden move.  She also isn’t wearing tags because she doesn’t try to rush the front door when it’s open and her collar was rubbing on her neck.

I called her back (I missed the call in the depths of the mall) only to discover that the screen door was open and the cats had been OUTSIDE! not just out in the house (when they push the blocked catdoor leading inside open) and she had figured that we had wanted them to be able to go out.  - NOPE, sorry but they don’t go outside except on a leash -

okay, now I panicked.  Girl’s 9 yo. pet had been missing for two days and was somewhere outside (did I ever mention that we back up to a nature preserve?) with no tags on.  I just envisioned the poor thing totally spooked and taking off and then getting lost and unable to find her way home. All because someone hadn’t closed the door all the way after he took the trash out.

While she went back to recheck on the cats, Hubby and I decided to have her move Catmandu into the house so the door could be left open for Ribbons to come home, and to have A’s oldest daughter come over for the night so she could watch for Ribbons and shut the door if she came home to sleep/eat.

Then A called back.  Ribbons was sleeping on one of the chairs on the porch, the screen door was actually closed, and A hadn’t realized that one of the wooden doors was broken on the bottom and the cats could actually get into that closet.

I think I can milk this one for a looooong time.

And completing our trip, on Saturday we stopped in Chicago to see Jersey Boys and then came home.  The show was okay, but not a top tier and our seats were in the serious nosebleed section.

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